[Westheim]

The Furballs can still make my preseason prediction of 101-61 if they play just a sliver beneath .667 from here: 21-11 would be required.

Raccoons (80-50) @ Aces (61-69) – August 30-September 1, 2010

The Raccoons were 4-2 on the Aces in 2010. The series champion had alternated the last couple of years, and the Raccoons had been on top in ’09, so we really wanted to end that pattern. Our slightly scuffling offense would face the worst pitching in the league, with 655 runs conceded, which amounted to 5.04 R/A. They were fourth in runs scored.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (6-5, 4.00 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (0-7, 7.31 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (14-7, 3.41 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (6-7, 5.93 ERA)
Javier Cruz (12-7, 3.37 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (14-8, 3.10 ERA)

Three more right-handers that are penciled in for this series. The Aces have nobody on the DL, but the important thing here is that the Raccoons regain Ron Alston, their recently anemic sterling slugger. Alston had been 9-for-38 before his injury, with one dinger and five RBI, although he had drawn 12 walks against 7 strikeouts. So maybe it was bad luck after all?

Besides roster expansion on Wednesday for game 3, we also had an off day in Thursday this week, after which we would have the Elks in on the weekend, and after that another off day, so Colin Baldwin would get a skip on the weekend, while we would NOT add a starting pitcher when rosters expanded. Our entire depth had vanished to the DL, except for Kenichi Watanabe, and he had always relied on his control to not get swamped, and that control had gone lost entirely this year.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 3B Merritt – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Guerin – P Baldwin
LVA: LF L. Taylor – CF Melendez – RF R. Garcia – SS Dahlke – 3B F. Soto – C Durango – 2B Downing – 1B McDermott – P Rutter

Ian Rutter loaded the bases with two walks and a single in the top 1st, the Raccoons had no outs, yet only managed a Pruitt sac fly for one run. The Aces were on top of Baldwin from the start, except that they happily were putting 3-ball pitches into play, ruining an effort in the first inning, but they got a pretty fat chance in the third, when Josh Downing reached on an error by Merritt to start the inning. Sean McDermott singled and the runners were bunted over by Rutter before Logan Taylor struck out and Octavo Melendez’ drive to right was taken by Alston. That came after the usually listless Rutter had struck out Alston and Pruitt in succession in a RISP situation in the top of the inning.

Top 4th, Rutter allowed a leadoff single to Jon Merritt, then walked Yoshi and Concie to fill the bags for … Baldwin, who had already had his annual extra base hit and was a career .182 batter, and obviously was going to strike out, while Castro was no help either, bouncing out to Downing. In the fifth, Bowen struck out to strand Alston and Merritt in scoring position, giving Rutter six each in walks and strikeouts through five frames. He was hit for in the bottom 5th, with Howard Jones flying out to Castro to end that inning with the Raccoons still up 1-0. The Coons’ raging ineptness with runners in scoring position sooner or later had to have dire consequences. Bottom 6th, Baldwin allowed a single to Melendez before Ricardo Garcia doubled and Tom Dahlke drew a walk. Rockburn came in to somehow solve this three on, one out mess in our favor against right-handed batter Francisco Soto, and not only allowed a slam to Soto, but also another follow-up home run to Eduardo Durango.

Suddenly and rudely awoken, the Raccoons crowded lefty Jorge Cortez in the seventh. Castro and Quebell hit singles, Alston dingered, Pruitt reached on an error for what it was worth, and Merritt walked before the inning died against Zack Entwistle, who stranded the runners in scoring position and held the Raccoons down 5-4. The shock effect didn’t last forever, though. Guerin hit a leadoff single in the eighth, but was stranded on second base, while the ninth began with Dave Hughes issuing a leadoff walk to Alston. Hughes was perhaps not the most prudent choice for a closer given that he had already walked 42 batters in 55.1 innings, but he also had 68 strikeouts, so when Pruitt hit into a fielder’s choice and Merritt walked to put runners on first and second with one out we were a bit weary to have Craig Bowen, The Living Strikeout, bat in the spot. Pat White batted instead, lined out to Dahlke, and Nomura flew out to Melendez, who made a shoestring catch. 5-4 Aces. Quebell 2-4, BB; Alston 1-2, 3 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Merritt 2-3, 2 BB;

My post-game address to the game had to be cut off mid-rage for my voice cut out after the eleventh “§$”$&//$(!!!” – For ****’s sake! 12 runners left on base for the Raccoons, TWO for the Aces. Any more questions??

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – CF White – 2B Nomura – C Owens – SS Howell – P Umberger
LVA: 1B McDermott – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – 3B F. Soto – LF L. Taylor – SS Dahlke – CF Sambrano – 2B H. Jones – P N. Jones

In 109.1 innings, Jones had issued 40% more walks than strikeouts, so we were certainly going to get some runners, and the Raccoons shoved three runs across in the first inning already, landing three hits and three walks, including a 2-run double by Pat White, before Umberger predictably struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning. While Jong-hoo’s primary job was pitching, he gave back an unearned run in the bottom of the same inning. McDermott had singled and had made it all the way to third when Owens’ throw to second on his stolen base attempt wasn’t quite going to second after all and Pat White had to collect it. Alston drove in Castro in the top 2nd to get to 4-1, but when the bottom of the third started with Umberger serving up a line drive homer to Howard Jones, then walked Nehemiah Jones(!), I began to see blue spots again. Somehow Umberger dug out of the mess with a 4-2 lead still, but the only thing consoling me at this point was the fact that the Crusaders had been routed in Oklahoma and we weren’t going to lose a game on them no matter what.

No matter what turned out to be a 2-out rally by the Aces in the bottom 4th, with Dahlke walking, and them pushing over a run with singles by Sambrano and Howard Jones. The other Jones was removed for pinch-hitter Ron Richards at this point, but Richards bounced out to Quebell to leave Umberger with the slightest sliver of a 4-3 lead. Not for long, though. The Aces’ Chris Spindler walked Merritt and threw two wild pitches in the top 5th to pretty much force Merritt to score, but Umberger was by now gone to **** as well, put on McDermott and then allowed a 2-run homer to Durango to knot the contest at five in the fifth.

While Umberger was purged after the fifth inning, he still wound up in line for the win again when Jon Merritt snapped a 2-out, 2-run triple off Spindler in the top 6th. Cortez replaced Spindler and got a bouncer from Alston to end the inning at 7-5 Trashcan Robbers. Another run was added on a Howell sac fly in the seventh, and Zack Entwistle was bombed by Castro at the start of the eighth, 9-5. Entwistle then loaded the sacks with a Quebell single, Merritt double, and an intentional walk to Alston, nobody out. This time, the Coons were not denied: Pat White snipped a 1-2 pitch to right for an RBI single, and Yoshi plated two with a double to left. That was it for Entwistle, and while Owens popped out against Manny Silva, we were comfortably ahead by now and even had Ted Reese, who had logged two outs in the bottom 7th, bat with one out and a pair in scoring position. Reese struck out, no further runs were scored in the 12-5 game in this inning, and Reese then responded to the special assignment with serving a leadoff jack to Soto in the bottom of the inning, then walked Logan Taylor on four pitches. Dahlke grounding into a double play helped tremendously to keep me from throwing myself into the abyss beneath my assigned suite. Josh Gibson allowed two singles to start the bottom 9th before striking out McDermott and getting another double play turned by Yoshi. 12-6 Blighters. Castro 3-6, HR, RBI; Quebell 3-6; Merritt 2-3, 2 BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; White 3-4, BB, 2B, 4 RBI; Nomura 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Guerin (PH) 1-2;

It sure ain’t easy managing this flea circus! Good news, though, with the Crusaders losing their first two games in Oklahoma, we end the month of August with an 8-game advantage over both them and the Indians. The Elks are 12 1/2 games out and for practicable purposes can be ignored, except for when we will play them directly. Like on this weekend.

As rosters expanded, we added three arms in Derrek Fredlund (12.71 ERA here or there…), George Youngblood (a left-hander picked up from the Rebels in ’09 for Ed Bryan, who also had ****ty control), and the eternal Sergio Vega (2-5, 4.74 ERA in 83 ML games since 2001(!)), who was by now 30 and had swingmanned his way through the AAA season, whiffing 100 in 78 innings, 37 games with five of those being starts. He had posted a 3.92 ERA.

Ximenes Lopes was added as the third catcher after batting .285/.346/.410 in 91 AAA games this year, and we also added Ralph Myers (.279/.402/.439 with 18 homers), Ricardo Martinez, Walt Canning, and Santiago Trevino. Players not added include f.e. Pete Schipper, somewhat of a mild upset last year, who had batted an uninspired .257 in AAA this season, with only two homers and little playing time.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 3B Merritt – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – P Cruz
LVA: 1B McDermott – CF Melendez – RF R. Garcia – 3B F. Soto – LF L. Taylor – SS Dahlke – C Durango – 2B H. Jones – P Valdevez

While Canning clanked a 2-run homer off Valdevez in the second inning, the Aces were all over Cruz. They had leadoff doubles in both the second and third innings. Cruz walked two in the second, both in full counts, before also running a full count against Valdevez with two outs, whom he thankfully struck out to keep the 2-0 lead up, but he had less luck in the third, in which the Aces drove in their leadoff double hitter McDermott, then loaded the bases again, but left them stacked again when Durango flew out to Pruitt. Cruz remained an easy victim: Jones, Melendez, and Garcia all hit singles off him in the fourth, tying the score and leaving runners on the corners with two outs for Soto, who was in all likelihood the last batter for Cruz, who was already on 93 pitches. Cruz balked in the go-ahead run before Soto even had to swing, and Cruz was removed afterwards.

Down 3-2, George Youngblood made his major league debut in the fifth, where he would face two left-handers among the first three batters. Those two left-handers hit singles, and Youngblood was chased with one out and runners on first and second as Ray Kelley was to go after Howard Jones, whom he struck out, but then allowed an RBI single to Valdevez. The Raccoons left the tying runs in scoring position when Merritt grounded out in the top of the sixth then. How were you not going to rage watching them? How? It wouldn’t get any better after that. Pruitt struck out to end the eighth with the tying runs on base yet again, and in the ninth Merritt led off with a double, bringing up the tying run. White batted for Bowen, grounded out, and Nomura also grounded out. While that scored Merritt, the run didn’t matter one bit. Ayers struck out in Canning’s spot. The end. 4-3 Aces. Quebell 2-4, 2B;

Let’s see. **** game, **** game, **** game, Indy and NYC both back within seven games, and now the Elks come to town. Oh ****.

Raccoons (81-52) vs. Canadiens (68-64) – September 3-5, 2010

The Elks had the most potent offense in the Continental League with 623 runs scored (POR: 610, 3rd), but were fifth in runs allowed (POR: 2nd). We had so far taught them a lesson at an 8-3 pace, but they had a lifelong habit of ruining everything I liked and loved, and a hostile sweep in friendly territory was imminent.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (17-5, 2.74 ERA) vs. Dave Crawford (10-11, 4.29 ERA)
Gil McDonald (6-2, 2.60 ERA) vs. Simon Pegler (10-12, 4.27 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (15-7, 3.52 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (3-5, 4.02 ERA)

At least it looks like we will avoid their two best pitchers, Juichi Fujita (brrr…) and Rod Taylor, unless they skip Simon Pegler completely. Pegler’s turn would have been before Crawford. Oh yeah, all right-handed rotation still for them, so we can continue to run out an endless string of left-handed batters.

Game 1
VAN: CF Holland – LF E. Garcia – 1B Gilbert – 3B Suzuki – RF J. Thomas – 2B Dobson – SS T. Johnson – C Mata – P Crawford
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Howell – P Brown

Dark clouds hovering overhead, Brown was tagged for a run on a Holland single and Ray Gilbert double in the first inning, and the Elks actually loaded the bases when Brown drilled Mitsuhide Suzuki and walked Jerry Dobson, who was batting a makes-mommy-proud .199, on four pitches. Tom Johnson grounded out to leave three on. Brownie’s control was obviously in the trash. He walked Ross Holland in the second, also on four pitches, but he was stranded, before a rain shower doused the field and brought a delay of exactly 60 minutes.

The first few innings were rather eventless when it came to the Raccoons at the plate. When Yoshi drew a 2-out walk in the bottom 4th that merely brought up the completely messed up Bowen, but he came through quite well here, tattering a long shot to left center that left the yard and flipped the score in the Coons’ favor, 2-1. The lead was short-lived though. Nick Brown couldn’t retire the ****ing Ross Holland at all, who hit a leadoff single in the fifth, was bunted over by Garcia, then stole third base largely unimpeded and scored on Gilbert’s fly to Pruitt. Brown worked his way through six very mixed innings and didn’t receive a decision once Nomura and Bowen bowed out of a 2 on, 1 out situation in the bottom 6th. Josh Gibson followed up on Brown with the only task for him being to retire the pitcher at the start of the seventh. Gibson threw one pitch which Crawford hit for a hard single, then was purged. Thrasher and Rockburn got out of this ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY MESS as both teams began to throw their numerous replacements at another. The Elks left a runner on second in the top 8th before Quebell drew a leadoff walk from Crawford in the bottom of the inning. Key word “numerous replacements”, Ricardo Martinez ran for Quebell and managed to reach third base on an Alston single. No outs, go-ahead run on third base, GO COONS!! Pruitt failed with a groundout to the left side that moved Alston to second, as Tom Johnson wasn’t going to get him anymore once he had looked back Martinez, but Pruitt was out. Jon Merritt then flew out to Clint Southcott (that pig!) in leftfield, which enable Martinez to score after all. Juan Medina (that pig, too!) then threw out Alston at home on Yoshi Nomura’s single.

And then Angel blew the save, just like that. One out, Gary Rice pumped a no-doubter to center, home run, tied at three. Southcott also reached on an infield single after that, yet was left on. The Raccoons, much diminished after removing Quebell for speed and Pruitt for defense, now had to contend with Pedro Alvarado, whose numbers were even better than Angel Casas’. When Bowen nevertheless hit a leadoff single, Concie ran for him, and when Alvarado’s 0-2 offering grazed Pat White in the #8 hole, we were perhaps a soft single away from winning still. Canning grounded to Johnson at short, who only got White, Concie going to third with one out. Good news, bad news now: we had two left-handers coming up. Bad news, they were Trevino and Myers, and we could hardly remove either. Well, maybe Myers, but Trevino had to man centerfield. When he bounced out to first, meaninglessly moving Canning to second, Myers still batted and lined a 1-2 pitch to Johnson for the third out and extra innings. Nooooo!!

More “Nooooo!!” in the top 10th. Angel walked Gilbert on four pitches before Suzuki singled, but somehow still maintained order in renewed rain when he struck out Thomas and Dobson and got Johnson to ground out. Alston popped out in the bottom 10th before the rain forced another rain delay and suffocated the contest entirely. The game was suspended, to be completed on Saturday.

Play resumed an hour before the scheduled start of Saturday’s game with the following revised orders:
VAN: LF Southcott – CF Medina – 1B Gilbert – 3B Suzuki – RF J. Thomas – 2B Dobson – SS T. Johnson – C S. Esquivel – P Alvarado
POR: CF Trevino – 1B Myers – RF Alston – PH Ayers – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – C Lopes – LF White – SS Canning

… and with a 1-0 count on Keith Ayers, who would single, but wouldn’t be scored. Unfortunately, the Raccoons’ selection of pitchers was severely limited by now, and Sergio Vega, who had pitched a scoreless inning on Wednesday, was sent in to pitch for as long as the Elks would allow him to. He smacked Esquivel to get started in the 11th, but struck out Raphael Delattre and Juan Medina to escape the inning. The Coons left Canning on base after a 1-out double, before Vega walked the sacks full in the 12th. Ray Kelley was thrown into the game to face Johnson, but failed to contain Vega’s mess. Johnson singled, 4-3, Esquivel doubled, 5-3, with one runner thrown out at home. But… who cares? The Raccoons went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning. 5-3 Canadiens. Alston 2-5, RBI; Ayers (PH) 1-1; Bowen 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

Game 2
VAN: CF Holland – LF E. Garcia – 1B Gilbert – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – 2B Dobson – SS T. Johnson – C J. Silva – P Pegler
POR: LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – CF White – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – C Owens – P Umberger*

Gil McDonald had spent the previous night emptying a particularly vile-smelling trash can in some dubious neighborhood and felt terminally ill on Saturday. Jong-hoo Umberger filled in on short rest.*

The Raccoons came out swinging – perhaps the fact that I used the entire 30-minute break between games to bark into their sorry faces had something to do with it – and took an early 2-0 lead in the first on a Quebell homer. Alston walked and scored on White’s double, but the more critical moment came in the bottom of the fourth, with a 3-0 score after Owens had just singled in Alston, leaving two men on with two outs and Jong-hoo batting. Pegler failed, allowed a single that loaded the sacks to the notoriously poor hitter Umberger, and then threw four pitches off the plate to Tomas Castro to push in another run. Quebell popped out to shallow left to delay the fatal stab. Umberger came to bat in the bottom 6th with the bases loaded and no outs, and Pegler looking at him with a deer-in-the-headlights expression. Jong-hoo struck out anyway (Pegler’s first K on the day), but Castro drew another walk, 5-0, and the end of the road for Pegler. Sancho Rivera came on, but would give up another bases-loaded walk to Merritt to have the Raccoons up 6-0 after six. Umberger’s so far very well pitched game got a few edges knocked off by the Elks, who scored a run in the seventh on a Suzuki double, and then got a pinch-hit homer by Jimmy Roberts in the eighth. Ron Thrasher (whom we got from the Elks!) retired Holland and Garcia to end the inning. The weather turned sour again in the bottom 8th and there was another 32-minute delay, after which the Coons put two on and stranded as many. The ninth had Reese on the mound, who walked Gilbert to get started, then struck out Thomas and Suzuki before Dobson popped out to Gutierrez at third base. 6-2 Coons. Castro 1-2, 2 BB; Alston 1-2, 2 BB; Owens 3-4, RBI; Umberger 7.1 H, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (16-7);

After the loss in the opener was concluded, the Raccoons were only 5 1/2 ahead of the Indians, who were leading the Titans in Boston in the eighth inning, but blew up and lost, 7-6, while the Critters took this middle game to get back to 6 1/2 games ahead.

Game 3
VAN: CF Holland – LF E. Garcia – 1B Gilbert – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – 2B Dobson – SS T. Johnson – C Mata – P Spears
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Howell – P McDonald

Holland opened the rubber game with a double, but was still on second with two outs, at least until McDonald threw eight balls to Thomas and Suzuki. Jerry Dobson thankfully struck out, and McDonald also whiffed Johnson and Mata in the second before inexplicably walking Spears. Holland popped out to short. Top 3rd, leadoff walk to Garcia, and Thomas would then hit a single, on which Garcia went to third and drew a weak throw from Alston, which also allowed Thomas to go to third base. Suzuki grounded out to Merritt, keeping the runners pinned before Dobson again was the fool and grounded out to Howell. Three innings, six men on, no runs for the Elks, while the Raccoons had been silent so far. The Elks finally broke through in the fourth. Mata hit a double, and McDonald couldn’t remove Holland in a 1-2 count, giving up a 2-out RBI single to the disgusting centerfielder. McDonald was chased after his fifth walk of the day to Thomas with one out in the fifth. Kelley got out of the mess, and logged two outs in the sixth, too, before him and Bowen were removed in a double switch for George Youngblood to try his luck with the irritating Holland. Of course he walked him, Holland stole second base, his 40th on the year and third in the series, but Enrique Garcia impatiently grounded out after Youngblood had fallen from 0-2 to 3-2 on him. The Elks retained a 1-0 lead over the Raccoons, of whom Scott Spears had sat down 15 straight since Tomas Castro’s leadoff single in the first inning. That string tore in the sixth with Rob Howell legging out an infield single against Ray Gilbert, but the Raccoons would not score once the deep frozen Pruitt grounded out to strand Howell and Quebell on the corners.

Top 7th, Fredlund issued a leadoff walk to Gilbert, then threw a wild pitch well past Travis Owens. Two pop outs saved him from being tagged, but the Raccoons were still looking for a way to at least salvage a .500 week, which seemed like they were aiming for every Sunday by now. They had a chance in the bottom 7th, when Merritt reached on a Holland error (grins evilly) and a Yoshi single. Ricardo Martinez hit for Fredlund and walked, Ayers hit for Howell and ravaged Spears with a drive to left center that just kept rising and racing. GRAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!

Julio Mata was thrown a ball from the dugout and tagged Keith Ayers as he crossed home plate on his slam, but the umpire denied his argument that Keith Ayers was always out at home. Apparently this was not true on a home run. 5-1 Raccoons! Quebell 2-4, 2B, RBI; Ayers (PH) 1-1, HR, 4 RBI; Kelley 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Beltran 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

This claims the season series for the Raccoons, with a 4-game set in Vancouver to spare. We also beat them 10-8 in 2009, which gives us back-to-back series wins against the Elks for the first time since 2001-2003.

In other news

September 4 – CHA SP Roberto Ramirez (2-2, 3.14 ERA) 3-hits the Aces in a 5-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

People have surely felt more comfortable with a 7-game (or so) lead and a month to play. Problems: the pitching does completely stupid things, and the offense keeps putting people on base, but they aren’t scoring them! If I’d get an extra 50 grand of budget room whenever they have the sacks full with one out and score one or even no run(s)! We could outspend the ****ing Crusaders!

This Sunday, Salem’s Nelson Chavez was suspended four games after yelling down an umpire. Chavez was a 2008 Coon, batting .220 before being squeezed out between Martinez and Sharpie. Since then he had .240-ish campaigns in rest-2008 with the Rebels and in 2009 with the Scorpions, but was a regular this season with the Wolves, batting .294 with five homers.

As far as the Coons are concerned, the magic number is 20 when looking at the Indians, and 19 when looking at the Crusaders. We will play in Indy and Boston next week, starting a road trip that will take us to Vancouver next week. By the way, our final 7-game homestand will see us playing BOTH the Crusaders and Indians, with 10 games total left over against these two teams.

*The suspended game ****ed up the rotation and I didn’t notice, perhaps because I was crying furiously. Thanks, OOTP.